| Creativity is an important factor for the continuous development and success of people in today’s society.It can help individuals and groups to stand out from the competition.Remote association competence is an indicator of creativity,and many researchers attach great importance to it.Nowadays,social networking sites are also full of overt competition and hidden comparisons,people are more likely to experience envy online,which can have an impact on their creative performance.In recent decades,researchers have found that there are two subtypes of envy:benign envy and malicious envy.These two specific emotions may have different effects on creativity,and this difference may also differ among individuals with different traits.In this study,two parallel experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of benign and malicious envy on Remote Association Test(RAT)task,as well as the moderating effects of cognitive factor(cognitive style)and non-cognitive factor(consciousness).Experiment 1 tested the effects of envy and cognitive style on creativity.The total number of valid participants in Experiment 1 was 147.We used the embedded figures test(EFT)to screened out 42 field-independent participants and 41 field-dependent participants.Each participant completed the RAT task within a time limit of 8 minutes after the emotion elicitation.The time spent on RAT task and performance in the task of the participants were analyzed,and the results were found:(1)The results of the survival analysis showed that the individual persistence under benign envy was lower than the malicious envy group and the control group.The main effect of emotion on RAT task performance was not significant;(2)the main effect of cognitive style on RAT task performance was not significant.For the time spent on RAT task,the main effect of cognitive style was significant.Field-independent individuals spent less time than field-dependent individuals;(3)The interaction effects of cognitive style and emotion condition in RAT task performance and the time spent on RAT task were not significant.Experiment 2 tested the effects of envy and consciousness on creativity.The total number of valid participants in Experiment 2 was 159.According to the scores on consciousness scale,we screened out 51 high-conscious participants and 43 low-conscious participants.Each participant completed the RAT task within a time limit of 8 minutes after the emotion elicitation.The results indicated that:(1)The results of the survival analysis showed that the persistence of individuals under benign envy was lower than that of the control group.The main effect of emotion on RAT task performance was not significant;(2)The main effect of consciousness on RAT task performance was significant,and the high-conscious group solved more RAT items than the low-conscious group.For the time spent on RAT task,the main effect of consciousness was not significant;(3)There was a significant interaction between consciousness and emotion condition in RAT task performance.Individuals with high consciousness had no difference in RAT task performance under different emotions;individuals with low consciousness had higher RAT scores in the malicious envy condition than the other two emotion groups.The interaction between consciousness and emotion condition in the time spent on RAT task was not significant.This study was the first to verify that two types of envy(benign envy and malicious envy)induced on social networking sites under Chinese culture,and compared with benign envy,the people under malicious envy persist longer on RAT tasks.At the same time,this study explored the interaction between envy,cognitive and personality factors on creativity.The results indicated that the impact of envy on creativity is not constant,and it will vary according to people’s cognitive style and consciousness.This provides some experimental evidence for how different individuals should cope with envy to ensure creative performance,and has enlightening effects on the education of college students and the cultivation of innovative talents. |
